


Innocence and Decisions

by Diary



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), London Spy
Genre: Alex Turner is Alive, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - James Bond Fusion, Bechdel Test Fail, Canon Gay Character, Conversations, Crossover, Disturbing Themes, Established Danny Holt/Alex Turner, Established Relationship, Friendship/Love, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-09
Updated: 2016-03-09
Packaged: 2018-05-25 16:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6202411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diary/pseuds/Diary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crossover. AU. "If I absolutely must, I’ll give the standard order. If there’s anyway two innocent young men can continue being free and in love, however, you’re the agent who has the best chance at making it happen.” Complete.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Innocence and Decisions

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own London Spy or the Bond franchise.

“A Jasmine green tea with lemon, please,” Danny orders.

Next to him, an older woman looks over.

He smiles.

“That’s an unusual order for one so young,” she comments.

Her eyes flicker over him as she says it, and he knows she doesn’t exactly mean ‘young’. Taking in his scruffy clothes, slightly bloodshot eyes, and build, she’s likely labelled him as a party boy.

He doesn’t mind, but part of him finds it funny. _If you’d met me only about a year ago, you’d have been dead-on._

“It’s for my boyfriend,” he answers.

It turns out, while plenty of inoculations do prevent deadly diseases, flu ones are hit-and-miss.

Alex’s fever has finally broken.

When it first came, Danny knew his response would be to sequester himself in his own flat, and Danny hadn’t let him. If Alex was going to curl up under a comforter, suffer through nightmares, suffer through sleeplessness, crave touch but be unable to handle even a gentle hand on his forehead, and begrudgingly force down soup he’d only end coughing back up, he was going to do it with someone who cared about him within reach.

Now, Alex has finally gotten more than a few hours of peaceful sleep, and he’s able to keep food down, but his throat and stomach are still bothering him. 

Alex loves the tea from this place but only has it on special occasions, and Danny is hoping it’ll help him now.

She smiles. “That’s nice. My son is a wild one. I’m not sure a young lady has ever had breakfast with him.”

Danny hears the unspoken “too”.

“Here you go,” the cashier says.

Accepting the tea, he says, “Thanks.” To the woman, he asks, “Do you know what you’re getting?”

Nodding, she tells the cashier, “A nocciola gelato, please.”

“Here,” Danny says. He quickly hands the cashier some money. “Keep the change.” To the woman, he smiles and says, “Have a good day.”

He leaves before she can respond.

…

M looks up when he comes in. “Sit down.”

Once he does, she pushes two pictures across the desk.

“That’s one of ours,” he notes. “But the other- that isn’t Q.”

“No," she agrees. “Their resemblance is truly just one of those bizarre things the universe sometimes does.”

“It isn’t the resemblance that bothers you.”

She glares but answers, “No. What bother me is, I’m going to give you an order, and when others review decision, my motivation is likely to be viewed as tainted by the resemblance.”

“What is it tainted by?”

Sighing, she rubs her forehead.

Finally, she answers, “Bloody innocence. He’s a young man who has done many questionable things, some downright illegal and others simply immoral. And yet, in many ways, he is everything we are charged with protecting. Occasionally, innocence must be sacrificed. When there’s another way, however-” She stops.

“And ours?”

“Isn’t,” she answers.

“A traitor?”

“Yes."

“But,” he realises, “you aren’t going to give the standard order.”

“Not at first.” She taps the picture of the Q doppelgänger. “Because of him, one chance will be extended.”

He stares. “It’s very rare for you to hide behind- you’ve said before you’re a woman in a man’s field, and that means not letting certain parts of you show and affect things.”

“00-”

“He’s been _declared_ a traitor.”

“Yes. In another time, he wouldn’t have been. 19 dead people are still causing chaos and pain across the world. How much of that is because of them and how much is due to others taking advantage of what was done, I don’t have the answers, but-” She chuckles bitterly. “Somehow, we managed to recruit a little boy. I’m aware neither he nor his partner would appreciate such a descriptor, but there it is. We desperately needed people, and we took in a little boy and told ourselves he’d harden up, become a man, and be a great asset.”

“The man part has come, but the hardness- Add the innocent civilian, and if I absolutely must, I’ll give the standard order. If there’s anyway two innocent young men can continue being free and in love, however, you’re the agent who has the best chance at making it happen.”

Nodding, he puts his hand on the hand still resting on the picture of Q’s doppelgänger. “What’s the boy’s name?”

“Daniel Edward Holt. Danny. The other one is-”

He stands up. “I’ll handle it.”

“You don’t even-”

“It’s handled,” he responds before walking out.

…

Alex comes out of the bathroom and finds a man standing against the wall. “Alistair Turner. Do you know who I am?”

“I know your ranking,” Alex answers. “You’re a 00.”

The man nods. “I need you to come with me.”

Adjusting his posture, Alex reaches up to make sure his tie is straight and nods. He ignores the thoughts of Danny swirling through his head.

…

In an empty park near the MI6 building, Alex sits at a picnic table.

The man sits on top of it and digs out two yoghurts and spoons. He offers one to Alex.

“No, thank you.”

Shrugging, the man sets the extras down, opens his, and begins eating. “I was shown a picture recently. Danny, they told me his name is. Personally, I’ve never gone for innocence, but he’s a handsome young man. Looks like he’s probably up for a bit of fun, at least.”

After a stretch of silence, he continues, “You get one chance, Turner. I’ve directly killed sixteen people. Three of them were our own. I’m sure you could probably calculate how many I’ve indirectly killed, but I’d consider it a favour if you didn’t tell me. I don’t want to get my budget slashed, again, and so, I’d make it look like an accident your partner wouldn’t question. Car crash, hit and run, a mugging gone wrong.”

“He’d grieve. He’d try to make sense of things. Hopefully, he wouldn’t somehow stumble onto what you were and cause a fuss. Because, if he did- well, if that happened, I’d get my budget slashed for sure. Drug overdose, alcohol poisoning, a sex game gone wrong- It wouldn’t be a simple bullet through the head for either of you, but he’d suffer worse.”

“One chance,” he repeats. “Resign, destroy your research on- I’ll be honest and say I don’t particularly understand myself what it’s about, but destroy it, and go home to him. Kiss him, tell him you love him, and go to sleep knowing that, for all the lies you’ve told and will continue to tell him, he can trust that the man sleeping next to him will always do what’s needed to protect him.”

He finishes his yoghurt. “Or don’t. We don’t know for sure how far along you are or what precautions you have in place. There’s a chance killing you won’t make a difference in the larger scheme of things. You might just radically alter the world forever. Whether it would get your partner killed or not, I can’t say.”

“You have twenty-four hours starting from when I finish throwing this in the rubbish bin,” he finishes. “Ask yourself which is more important: building a life with Danny, even one built partially on lies, or thrusting him all by himself into a world you’ve completely remade.”

Softly, Alex asks, “Is there any guarantee Danny won’t be harmed if I do what the service wants? Or should I take drastic measures to try to guarantee it myself?”

The man sighs, and removing his sunglasses, he orders, “Look at me.”

Alex does.

Holding his eyes, the man quietly tells him, “This job cost me the woman I love. She was the love of my life. In everything I’ve just told you, I haven’t threatened to physically harm or kill Danny if you don’t comply. I’ve simply told you there might come a time, after your death, when I have to. I can live with taking a member of the service away from their loved ones. God help me, there might come a day I do threaten an innocent life to bring another member in line. But not today. I promise you, if you comply, your partner will never be in any danger from me.”

Alex nods.

The man clasps his shoulder, slips off the picnic table, and goes over to the rubbish bins.

Throwing the empty cup and plastic spoon away, he walks out of the park.

…

In a car, M says, “Everything points to Turner’s research being completely destroyed. Do I even want to ask how you accomplished this?”

He shrugs. “Probably not.”

“I won’t, then.”

The car stops.

“If you don’t tell me what this is about, however,” she warns.

“I’ve told you, there’s something I want you to see.”

“You’ll understand why I’m not comforted with such vagueness.”

Smiling slightly, he takes her hand. “You can always have me killed.”

“I try to tell myself that,” she mutters.

He pulls her out, hands her a pair of binoculars, and points. Peering through them, she freezes. “If this is your idea of-”

Pushing them back up, he insists, “I promise, you really do need to see this.”

Sparing him a glare, she nevertheless peers back through them.

By the water, sitting in casual clothes, Turner pours liquid into a thermos cap, and his and Danny’s hands touch when the latter accepts it.

Then, Danny says something, and she realises this is the first time she’s ever witnessed Turner smile.

It’s a nice smile, she reflects, and Danny must agree, because his own smile deepens, and leaning over, he steals a kiss.

Lowering the binoculars and refusing to look over, she simply says, “Thank you.”  

“Even if it was homophobia that made him a target, it doesn’t matter,” he says. “As you’re always telling me, the world is changing, and we must adapt. Soon enough, we’re not going to have to recruit children based on the potential talent they show. There are plenty of men and women who are talented, dedicated, and would proudly serve if given the opportunity, and soon, the old guard will have no choice but to let them.”

“In this one instance, though,” he finishes, “whoever’s responsible and whatever their reasons, they made the right decision. He wasn’t cut out for our line of work.”

“Because he chose love?”

“No,” he answers. “Because when we love, it should never be anyone innocent.”

…

Danny sees a woman and a man in the distance and wonders if it’s a son taking his mum for a walk.

He doesn’t give it much thought, however, and quickly goes back to looking at his and Alex’s linked hands and the matching rings on their fingers.

Besides this, something’s changed, he knows. Alex has been much happier since he quit investment banking and started working as an accountant at a nearby law firm, and aside from being more open about his job, he’s been much more open about himself in general.

Part of Danny wishes he knew what exactly caused the change- it happened shortly after Alex got over his flu, he knows, but whether there’s a connection or not, he’s not sure-, but he supposes it doesn’t matter.

“What are you thinking,” Alex asks.

Smiling, Danny leans closer and kisses him. “About how much I love you.”

“I love you, too.”


End file.
